I have heard from some Cingular reps that the new 8700 BB will have a new "Crypto" battery. It is the same shape and size of the 7100 batteries but Blue in color instead of black.

Here is the kicker.....no other battery will work in the 8700 except for the RIM manufactured "Crypto" batteries. No 3rd party batteries, even the Black 7100 RIM batteries will not work in the 8700's. These Crypto batteries are however backwards compatable and will work in the 7100 series.

Apparently all the same chargers will work for them, the only difference is the 8700 will require this battery. If you install a Black Non-crypto battery an error message will display on the sceen and the device will not boot.

Why you ask? The reason given is that if a battery in a handheld were to melt or leak and injur someone, the handheld manufacturer could be responsible. This way RIM can ensure only top quality batteries are being used in their devices.

Myabe we will be seeing the same technology installed by some of the other major phone makers?

Many laptop mfrs use so-called smart batteries where the computer has a communication link to the electronics inside the battery. You can then query the information (For Dells, you can use the freeware fan-control utility to pull battery info, serial number, maker of the battery cells etc)

It would only seem logical that the 8700 could use a similar method to check the validity of the battery.

My New BB-7100i came with a blue battery, which at first I thought it was kinda odd cause all the batteries you see on e E-bay for 7100 series are black. On the left hand corner it has (C-S2) I just thought i'de share that..

Well, having never seen an 8700, I couldn't really voice my opinion one way or another. Its not inconceivable to "lock" a BlackBerry to specific battery type however. As one poster mentioned, laptops have long had the ability to query the battery to determine chemistry, remaining charge, manufacturer, number of cells, etc.

It would certainly make sense on RIM's part anyway, as the first post says, it'd be an excellent quality control feature. However it would mean that you can only get a replacement battery from RIM, however likely that is (I've had bad experiences with the batteries for portable gadgetry).

RIM rep brought a demo 7130e device to a meeting yesterday. The battery was dead. Way to go! Bring a device to demo that has a dead battery! Anyways, I tried placing my battery from a 7100g. It of course did not work. The battery in the 7130e was blue, and did have the lock symbol on it. It appears the 7130e will have this type of battery in it too.

You know.. I have cables for my 7520 and have yet to see the situation that another battery needed to be hotswapped? I can charge in the car, the house or on the road with the third.

What in the world (outside of defect bat's) has spawned this level of conversation on something that has plagued everyother rechargeable device for year.. may not be technically locked but you have to get the right replacement. Wasn't that long ago that the 3rd party vendors were not around for the old 3 digit Berry's, skywriters, and most cell phones...